Photo by Jim Devinney
The James River girls saw their best basketball season in years come to an end last week, one win away from qualifying for the state tournament. The Knights dropped a Region 2C semifinal game to Liberty High in Bedford, 64-37.
“We didn’t play well, we struggled all game long,” said River coach Ryan Firebaugh. “Liberty is a pretty good team. When they’re hitting shots from outside like they did, they’re a tough team to beat. Everything they threw up went in.”
The Minutewomen jumped to a 13-6 lead after the first quarter and upped the margin to 19, 32-13, at the half. River outscored Liberty in the third quarter, 13-11, but the host team finished strong and the Knights had too deep a hole to dig out of.
“When Liberty is hitting shots from outside that forces you to expand your defense, and when happens they lob it in to their post player (6’4” Shaine Brown) and she goes to work,” said Firebaugh. “I thought when we started the game we were doing a good job of getting out to the shooters and keeping Brown contained. We just got out of position a couple times and Liberty was able to find their shooters for shots in the corner or wing, and they made us pay.”
Caitlin Canada had 18 points and 10 rebounds to lead the Knights. Audrey Benson had six points and seven boards and Honesty Liming had six rebounds.
With the win Liberty advanced to Friday’s region final at Roanoke College, where they lost to Floyd County of the Three Rivers District, 46-19. Both teams advance to the state tournament this week.
River finished with a record of 14-11.
“Heck of a season for us,” said Firebaugh. “We were one win away from making the state tournament, and I think the last time they were in that position was 2011 or ’12.
“We had a lot of great things happen this year. We went 2-0 in overtime games and beat Floyd and Carroll for the first time in the program’s history. A lot of positive things came out of this season.”
River finished fourth in a very strong Three Rivers District that included Carroll, Floyd and Alleghany. The Knights were 7-5 in district play.
“I told my girls after the Liberty game, do not let this game reflect how our season went,” said Firebaugh. “We had a rough start but we hunkered down and figured out some things and came together as a team and worked our tails off to get where we are.
“I could not be more proud of my girls and the way they play the whole year. I had a fan stop me after our game against Liberty and tell me ‘that was one of the most exciting seasons of girls basketball I have been a part of and your girls are resilient and competitors and I look forward to seeing y’all play again next year.’”
The Knights lose just one senior, Liming. Canada, a junior, was named first team All-District and sophomore Kelsi Maydian made the second team.
